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US Coal Exports Could Push the Climate Past a Point of No Return

There’s a new front line in the battle to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Companies like Arch, Ambre, and Peabody want to ship the coal buried under the United States to Asia, releasing disastrous amounts of carbon pollution, just to line their own pockets. This expansion in US coal exports could release more carbon pollution than any other new fossil fuel project in the United States, according to a new report Greenpeace released today.

It’s a sobering reality, one that President Obama acknowledged in no uncertain terms in his second inaugural address:

“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more devastating storms.”

Unfortunately, despite the risk, fossil fuel companies are moving forward with massive new extraction projects that will push us past a tipping point for the climate.

The new Greenpeace International report, Point of No Return, quantifies the carbon pollution that would be released if governments and corporations move forward with 14 planned coal, oil and gas projects around the world.

U.S. coal export expansion emerges in the report as the largest climate threat among new domestic fossil fuel projects. Using conservative estimates, the proposed expansion would produce 420 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually by 2020 – or more carbon pollution than the entire country of Spain.

If we’re serious about halting the worst impacts of climate change, we must fight Arch, Ambre, and Peabody’s plans, and keep this coal in the ground.

We haven’t reached the Point of No Return. Globally, renewable energy can power our homes, cars, and businesses, and make these massive extraction projects irrelevant. That’s why Greenpeace is calling on elected officials to put people over profits and put the brakes on coal export expansion.

In the coming months, Oregon’s Gov. Kitzhaber can deny Ambre Energy’s permits for a new coal terminal. The Obama Administration can declare a moratorium on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. And politicians and regulators at all levels of government must consider that green-lighting any new coal export-related infrastructure would lock us into a hotter, more dangerous climate.